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Topic: Bloody Ice (Read 2722 times)

Like a roiling, fluffy-edged ceiling of black and grey, the clouds overhead released a few whirling flurries of chill rain and fluttering ice-snow, wetting the rolling grey-green hills below. In the distance, there could be seen a vast rampart of white and blue and grey, the Ice Sheet rising on the Land like an advancing army of wintery giants, or a glacial mold on the Earth Mother's stony breast.In a deep gully between hills lay rent corpses. Blood sluggishly flowed and pooled among the dead, cluttering with chunks of jagged pink ice."It is good," said the Chieftan, wiping blood from his sword upon his cloak."Aye," replied the warriors in unison, and set about salvaging precious food and water.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Bloody Ice takes place in a world similar to our own, a world of water and land and flesh. But it is also a world of blood, of terrible violence and terrible war.Bloody Ice's Land is caught in the clutches of an Ice Age. The entire world is cold and dim; sunlight and fire are valuable commodities. The Tribes wander the Land, battling over the land and the food and the warmth, and their priests sacrifice and offer blood and hearts to appease the angry Gods.The Tribes are warriors above all other things, and roam from throughout the Land, from the very bottom of the Ice Sheet, where dwell the horrible Fomorians, among other dark things best not mentioned, to the Isles of Maellansei, where the seas crash dark and chill against black rock shores, and shadowy Selkies lurk at the mouths of the ocean.There are dark things in the Land, things that chill the blood quicker than the winter night, and send the soul into terrors. Witches lurk in the dark, and the repugnant Fomorians who sweep down from the Ice Sheet; the fey Selkies work tenebral magicks from the chill waters and Sorcerers summon forth Demons from the Outer World. The chill hand of the Land of the Dead is never far away in Bloody Ice.Oh, warrior, take up your sword of bronze and cloak of fur, for these are the nights of the Long Winter, and the days of the Bloody Ice.

In Bloody Ice, there will be different values than in the classic fantasy RPG - not coin or estate, but rather friendship and honor... when written records do not exist, your good name and the value of your word are the only things you can rely on.

Logged

"Captain, the buttocks are moving from the pink into the red and purple spectrum! We cannot maintain this rate of spanking any longer!"

They have moved from a semi-nomadic/ settled existance into a nomadic one. Those swords were things once forgable by metal workers a generation ago. Now, since they are on the move... the newer weapons... if there are any...are weaker and limited. Older weapons have a "magical air" as they can break the simplier iron and bronze made by mobile forges.

This is a world without the megafauna that kept our ancestors alive through the ice ages. It was efficient to take down megabeasts, one hunt fed the tribe for a while, and provided all the furs and materials the tribe needed. Now these people, who already killed off the mega-beasts and took to a settled life... are now confronted with a new environment without that economical advantage.

Some of these tribes might be trying to be semi-nomadic again. They move, the settle in to an area and set up kilns and forges, and send out hunting and fishing parties. Yet the more nomadic tribes will keep raiding agaisnt them (as they have things) and moving into their territories (on their own migrations).

This is a world where you concentrate your group, rather than your own individual glory. The Great Ones of this time are the people who do things for the continued survival of the tibe.

Technology note:No tribe will have all of these, but each tribe might have its own way to adapt.

Snow Sticks... walking staffs with hooks on the end... to help stop slides/ trips, catch snow drifts to climb out, and so on. This could be a martial arts related weapon.

The smart tribes will develop snow shoes or other broad footed footwear. Some Northern Asian tribes had boots with huge footpads and small spikes, borrowing a page from the Snow Tiger's paws.

Skis: Hard to make, harder to master, but give your group a huge edge.

Ropes with Rakehead like grapples... designed to catch into snow as people fall down hills.

Note: There might be other races... variations on humans. The ice isolates and concentrates genetic groups. You might have a nethanderthal like person again. Small Humans are an option. All of these people are humans (and can interbreed) but they are very distinctive in look and size.

The Bryahuns dwell in the Isles of Mellansei, on the small islands of Corn, Loyn, and Caer. They are called the Tribe of Waters, for they are never far from the sea, and they are master canoe-builders. Bryahun raiders are known well all along the western coast of the Land, and throughout the Isles, as terse warrior pirates, who strike without warning and take all they can.Bryahuns are tall and black-haired, and most have blue eyes. They wear kilts of sealskin and cotton, and cloaks of the fur of sea-elk (ooc: a furred water animal native to the Isles). Their clan tattooes are swirling, curling patterns of blue and black that writhe along their arms and legs.Bryahuns worship the Earth Mother, like most Tribes. They also revere Bryan, the Lord of the Sea, who they say impregnated the Earth Mother with salt, wherefore she gave birth to the Bryahuns. Some other Tribes, especially the Bryahuns' dire enemies, the Yrn Daen, say that the Bryahuns are no better than Fomorians, stating that their god Bryan is simply another way of worshipping Deep Dagon, and that any Tribe who lives so close to Selkies must be sea-demons.